


Finder's Keepers

by PoisonJack



Series: orphan angel [1]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alpha Jack, Established Relationship, General au, Jack being Jack, Jack is actually decent despite being Jack haha, M/M, Mpreg, Omega Rhys, Omegaverse, Rhys in super protective mode, Rhysie is a big time nurturer, Trust Issues, also protective jack yay, orphan angel au, orphan babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 01:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6779539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys goes down to Pandora to work on some communication issues with a facility. He finds a sick orphaned baby and his omega instincts go into full keep/protect mode. Jack's instincts, however, tell him to destroy rival offspring. Threat displays and general antsiness from both occur as Rhys demands to take her back to Helios.</p><p>This came out of a great prompt on tumblr:</p><p> </p><p>  <i>"Rhys goes down to Pandora to do a quick, but still important, Hyperion job because the person responsible for said job got sick/died. It’s supposed to simple and painless but it’s Pandora so c’mon.  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Things happen and Jack has to go get him. ( ◞･౪･) Optional: Omegaverse and Rhys is preggers. Jack knows. Rhys may or may not know. Up to you"</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSpaceCoyote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceCoyote/gifts).



> Here I've been swearing up and down I won't write kids... Welp. I got super inspired by spacecoyote and had to do the thing ;D I still stand by my original statement tho haha
> 
> Originally on my tumblr [here](http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com/post/143996648745/i-have-a-prompt-but-the-more-i-think-about-it-the).

“I’m not happy about this.”

“If you were then I might smack you,” Rhys said with a smirk as he was packing clothes into a bag.

“I can just send someone else down instead.”

“Jack, you know I can just plug into everything and handle it,” the omega told him with a tap at his port. “Anyone else will take double the time and you can’t have those lines down for that long.”

“Piece of shit Jacobs,” the alpha grumbled as he watched. “Dying without authorization.”

“ _Really_ , Jack?” The younger man raised an unimpressed brow at him. “It’s not his fault he got Pandoran chicken pox.”

“I don’t see how it’s not… He was the one down there.”

“Because _you_ posted him there. All alone by the way. I’m surprised he didn’t go nuts.”

“He had loaders to talk to.”

“That’s hardly the same as a human.” The alpha grumbled as the omega came to press a kiss to his cheek. “It’s only going to be a week. Probably less if the problem is where I think it is. I bet those systems haven’t had a good purge and cleaning in a while…the man was only human, after all.” He gave Jack’s arm a squeeze with his cybernetic hand, smirking.

“Just do the thing, Rhysie. Nothing extra.” Jack wrapped him up in his arms and scented along the line of his throat. “I want you back as soon as possible.” He kissed his skin. “I’d rather you not go alone.”

“With the entourage of dumbass alphas you’re sending as escort? I’ll hardly be alone.”

Jack growled at that. “I meant _me_ , sugar.”

Rhys shook his head. “You’ve never had chickenpox, Jack. That could be dangerous. And besides, you need to stay up here and make sure everything is being received correctly. No one else has that authorization.” One of Jack’s hands moved between them to splay fingers over the slight paunch of the omega’s belly. “I’ll be fine, Jack. It’s probably going to be boring as hell. And you taught me to shoot, remember?”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Jack nosed at his skin. “I don’t want you needing to shoot anything.”

“I won’t. Don’t worry. The Idiot Squad will take care of everything,” Rhys told him pejoratively of the all-alpha bodyguards Jack sometimes assigned to his protection. “Please tell me you recruited some betas like I asked? Anyone with a bit more brains than testosterone?”

“I did,” Jack told him, surprising the younger man. “I don’t want them getting any ideas about my kid.”

That _really_ surprised Rhys. “Are you telling me you don’t trust your own soldiers now?”

“Baby when it comes to you, I don’t trust _anyone_ ,” the alpha growled, pulling away to frown into his face with thought at the smiling omega. “And you know how we get.” 

_We_ being alphas. Yeah, he knew that. Big dumbasses with stupid instincts mainly. They _did_ make for good soldiers. Still annoying though.

“We’re bonded,” Rhys pointed out. That should make him relatively uninteresting to any alpha otherwise. Some sort of change in the scent he gave off that was otherwise unappealing. The Idiot Squad should be more or less completely indifferent.

“ _Still_ ,” Jack told him petulantly. “And I’m sending one of my best men with you.” His fingers danced along Rhys’ belly again and the omega smirked.

“Someone you trust?” Rhys teased.

“I don’t trust anyone.”

Rhys snorted and brought Jack’s arms around himself proper before taking up the alpha’s lips with his own. “Quit worrying, alright? Now let me have you one more time before I gotta get on the shuttle,” the omega purred out against him.

Jack was quite happy to oblige that request, and let the omega push him onto their bed.

–

The shuttle ride was boring, the mixed Idiot Squad unusually dull, and Jack’s own bodyguard was a non-talkative wall of burly muscle and more cybernetics than Rhys himself. No one much paid him mind and they generally kept to themselves. The omega just prayed that the robots that protected the facility were more interesting than his current entourage.

They’d settled down, everything unsurprisingly quiet and running as it should except for the lack of the recently deceased Mr. Jacobs. Half the soldiers went to makeshift barracks while the other half spanned out to check security points and that the bots and turrets were all in still-working order.

Rhys only took a moment to settle his things in the deceased man’s pristine quarters before he made his way deep within the facility. He found the control room which needed a human presence every few months to calibrate things and make sure communications and information was flowing freely and in real time from Pandora to Helios. 

He was able to rig a setup to plug himself via port into the system there, checking code, and running some of his own programs. He sent information to Jack and several minutes later he got a response. He wasn’t sure if it was just the CEO being his usual self or if the lag was worse than they thought, but he immediately set to work shutting down and blocking certain bits to insert his own code, sending it back to Jack and checking things over again. 

He broke for food later, craving some of Jack’s home cooking and looking at his belly accusingly. Whatever was in stock would have to do.

He ate with the cybernetic alpha Jack had assigned to him– Wilhelm, he was called- but he figured he might as well have been alone. The man wasn’t much of a chatter, and Rhys was happy to get back to the machines down in the facility that gave him more feedback.

The omega slept surprisingly well in the strange place, a bit confused waking up to still daytime, but went back to his work with due diligence. The alpha soldiers milled about, some doing maintenance on loaders or following the specific commands of Wilhelm. Rhys wondered as he was down with the expensive machinery how the late Mr. Jacobs had retained his sanity here. It was lonely down here, the buzz and hum of machinery one thing, the robots another, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t stand the lack of human presence.

It was even a little creepy. He was glad he didn’t believe in ghosts. Nope. Not even a little bit. Definitely not. 

He considered calling a loader down to keep him company when he heard what he thought was an animal. That was strange, but not uncommon to find. The machinery down there was a bit in disrepair and he wouldn’t have been surprised if some Pandoran rodent had gotten in and chewed on some of the things which contributed to the general reason he was there.

The noise came again, and he disconnected himself while getting up and listening. Was it a cat? It sounded like it could be a cat. That _might_ explain how the man didn’t go crazy, even though he was pretty sure that would not have been allowed. No animals near the expensive Hyperion machines.

He followed it to a panel, and heard the sounds again. Was it trapped inside the wall? Dammit, he couldn’t leave the poor thing trapped. Especially if it was a hidden pet. Mr. Jacobs had been gone about a week and he didn’t think robots knew much about pets. Something needed help.

Rhys went to pry off the panel, and it came relatively quickly with little resistance. It must have been his secret pet hidey-hole. There was a hidden room…and then he could smell decay and rot among other things, the scent hitting him nearly turning his stomach. Had something crawled in and died? It was awful.

He put his flesh hand over mouth and nose and activated the light in his other palm, wondering what the hell that godawful smell was. He heard the sounds again as he shined things about brushed steel walls and a corridor that went right. The cries he heard were a bit strange so maybe it wasn’t a cat? Maybe some weird Pandoran animal. He took the gun Jack had given him out from its holster in case whatever it was wasn’t tame, and he wrinkled his nose as the scent got stronger.

The regretful gasp he made had him breathing in the stench as he happened upon two dead bodies lying in an otherwise well-furnished room. He scanned them. Maybe two days gone? Pandoran chicken pox by the look of it. What were they doing there? Did they live in here?

The sound again much clearer sent his body into immediate alert. A little cry, like an animal but more. His body was taut, tense as he looked about the room and found a sort of makeshift crib. 

There was a baby- a child?- in the room, and Rhys’ heart and stomach both gave a lurch at the weak mewling interspersed with louder cries.

She was sick, that much was obvious. And she was filthy. He was grabbing a folded shirt from an otherwise neat pile from the deceased’s things, trying to handle it as best he could as his heart nearly thundered out of his chest and every nurturing instinct he had propelling him to the little creature crying in her crib. She was weak, but she quieted at his warmth as he held her to his chest and spirited himself back to his quarters.

Rhys summoned a loaderbot to bring him detailed supplies as he cleaned the child–toddler? She was tiny- and the things his eye told him had him nearly panicking. Her body was at the end of a chickenpox infection but she was so weak. If his eye was correct with the bodies of what were presumably her parents, she must’ve been by herself in that dark room the past two days. He cleaned her and wrapped her up in one of his softest clean shirts while she weakly whimpered. 

He held her close to him, soothing, hoping the loader would come back with the milk and medical supplies sooner than later. He had several bots doing his bidding as he commanded them through his echoeye, and he held the little thing close and did what his instincts told him. 

While he knew things about childcare– had devoured many books on the subject since finding out he was carrying Jack’s kid- he was ready for _babies_. He wasn’t positive if a toddler needed more than milk or what. It was a good place to start though.

Instead of the robot returning to Rhys’ personal quarters, it was the big cybernetic alpha with a curious look on his face at the door. He held the things Rhys had asked for in hand, giving him a look that said he wanted answers while he stood just outside the younger man’s suite.

“You catch something?” The burly man asked, looking oddly at the items he was holding. 

“N…Yes. I’m feeling under the weather.” The big man handed the items over, observing him carefully, nostrils flaring. 

“Jack’s not gonna like that.”

“Don’t tell him then. Probably just a cold.” A cry came from the bedroom that caught the alpha’s immediate attention and made Rhys go stiff. The burly man started in that direction and Rhys quickly cut him off to blockade the entry with arms and legs against the door jamb.

“No!”

“What is that?”

“Nothing!”

The bigger man had no problem bustling past Rhys, and the omega quickly darted into the room to take the child up in his arms before the alpha could get to her. Rhys snarled at him as he stopped, dumbfounded, staring at the uncomfortable, sickly thing in the omega’s arms wearing a huge shirt.

“Where’d you get that?” 

“Nowhere,” Rhys told him, backing himself into the corner as he stared down the stationary alpha, worried what he might do. The child whimpered but was comforted with the warmth of the omega’s body, eyes scrunched together in exhaustion.

“Jack’s definitely not gonna like that.”

“I don’t recall asking you to tell him,” Rhys growled.

The alpha shrugged, largely uninterested in the pregnant omega and the strange child, and Rhys stroked at the squawling thing in his arms, bouncing and shushing her. 

“Where’d you get it?” the alpha asked again. 

Rhys whined in his throat as he looked at the alpha, tears pricking as his heart hammered in his chest. “She was behind a panel down in data services… Her parents are dead, and she needs…she needs… She’s so weak…”

The alpha left before he could say anymore, and Rhys wasn’t sure what to think of that, but cooed at her and wondered how the hell he was going to tell Jack about this. Right now though he was more concerned about getting her fed and getting some medicine in her. She was covered in diaper rash and healing pox and he held her close as he rubbed her little back quieting her louder cries.

Not too long after, the alpha came back with some things Rhys couldn’t have been more grateful for. He brought him a sterilized bottle of formula, clothing, and itch-creams among other things. If Rhys cried a little then the alpha didn’t say anything about it. He applied creams to the child’s skin and fed her and though she was fussy, she appeared to be perking up greatly now that she was being seen to. 

The cybernetic alpha saw to things, brought him items he thought he could utilize, and set some bots on a schedule to serve him, but otherwise left the omega to his own doing.

Rhys didn’t return to the machinery the next day, instead keeping the toddler next to him resting in bed. Wilhelm had found diapers and Rhys was keeping her clean and fed and holding her little hand as she looked around with tired curiosity and sometimes whimpered. He didn’t think a child her age was generally so quiet and slept so much, but she was exhausted. The omega didn’t go back down to the basement until Wilhelm told him that Jack was getting antsy, and also that the alpha had had the ‘area’ cleaned out. 

Rhys was incredibly grateful to the man, and kept the tiny girl with him while he visited the server rooms. While he was still somewhat sketchy about allowing Wilhelm near her, the large alpha was mostly uninterested. She wasn’t his kid, and Rhys wasn’t his mate, so none of it smelled like fun or trouble to him. The cybernetic alpha actually managed to be very helpful, all things concerned, and hung around closer in case the omega needed his services which now included bottles and other snack foods the child was able to manage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was way super indulgent and a lot of fun. It ended up being way longer than I'd initially planned so I've split it into two chapters :3 I live on reviews <3
> 
> Come say hey :3 <http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com>


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had extra fun writing this bit :3

Rhys had a video call with Jack a day later to test connections and make sure things were being accomplished as they should, and the alpha commented on his appearance. “You don't look good, buttercup. Are you sick? I'm pulling you out of there immediately.”

“No I'm not sick Jack. It's just-” a cry came through the call, and Rhys’ eyes widened. Jack's expression went completely blank; something Rhys hadn't seen before.

“Rhysie did you--?”

The signal began to get choppy, cutting out whatever Jack was saying before it cut out completely. Dammit. Just great. This wasn't the way Rhys wanted this to go. 

First he went to check on the toddler, petting and soothing her as she whined and grabbed at him, and then he needed to look into the alignment of things and processors again causing the communication breakdown that had cut off their call.

Rhys never expected that a few hours later Jack himself would make an appearance down on Pandora, and that he'd show up in a veritable ball of frantic energy as he sought the omega out in his quarters.

“Jack what in the _hell_?”

The alpha's eyes were focused on his belly, and Rhys gave him a confused look as the alpha came to splay hands over the younger man and the bump that was there.

“I thought...I thought… I heard a baby cry,” Jack said dumbly, looking as perplexed as he felt.

“You thought I had our _baby_?” Rhys asked incredulously. “ _Seriously_? It's not due for months and months. That doesn't even-- really?”

The alpha was scenting his throat and all his panic over the younger man, confusion and feeling slightly stupid as the omega laughed at him.

“You came all this way because of that?”

“I distinctly heard a baby cry,” the alpha affirmed, holding the omega close. “The connection must've been more fucked than we knew.”

“Yeah...Probably an animal,” Rhys said with a nervous laugh, hoping against hope that the little thing asleep in his bedroom would stay that way until the alpha was satisfied and left.

Of course she didn't. That would have made his life easier.

The alpha perked up in alarm at the sound of the tired cry, and he looked at Rhys in expectation and confusion before making for the bedroom.

“Jack _no_ ,” Rhys commanded as he chased after the man, the situation much the same as it had been with Wilhelm, except this time he was _scared_.

“ _Rhys_ what the hell is that?” the alpha growled as he tried to move his mate out of the way with consideration to the life inside him.

Rhys nearly bowled the older man over to get to the baby before him, snatching her up and backing into the corner as he growled at Jack.

Jack's nostrils were flaring as he took in the tiny toddler in the omega's arms and took a step forward with a growl.

“Don't you _dare_ ,” Rhys snarled at him, body fully pushed into the corner as far from the alpha as he could get. Jack paused in his approach, eyes still on the mewling thing that _wasn't his_ in his mate’s arms. “Don't you dare, Jack.”

“What in the hell _is that_ , Rhys?” The alpha growled at the younger man. He didn't like the scents in his nose. The scent of someone else’s kid around his very pretty, pregnant omega. The limited resource of Rhys being utilized nurturing someone else's offspring and not his own. Instinctively it was rankling him on a million different alpha levels. “Why do you have it?!”

“She's _mine_ , Jack. She's _mine_ ,” Rhys growled, a hand protectively over the back of the toddler’s head, body inclined towards her as everything in him was telling him to _protect_ the little thing in his arms. Her baby smell, her vulnerability, the tired, whimpered cries that pulled at his heart. It appealed to him in the exact ways in which it riled the alpha. “ _Mine_.”

“She ain't yours, she's someone else's,” the alpha told him, back to approach as Rhys bodily turned into the corner, putting the child between the wall and himself and exposing his back to the alpha. Rhys was baring his teeth over his shoulder, his body protective, defensive. Jack was still scenting the air and only the undercurrent to Rhys’ voice made him pause again in his approach.

“I'll fight you, Jack. I really will,” Rhys snarled. “Get your head out of your stupid alpha ass; you're not touching her.”

“ _Rhys_ …”

“She is _mine_. I'm keeping her. With or without you,” he threatened with a growl, his hormones overworked and completely driving him by instincts alone. “She's _mine_.”

Jack crossed his arms and growled low in his throat, trying to crush the instincts telling him that his omega had another baby in his arms-- a rival’s baby- and that he should do everything he could to get it away to ensure his own offspring’s chances. The impulses he had were making himself uncomfortable and he wanted the triggering thing gone.

“Rhys--”

“I'm not letting you hurt her, Jack,” he snarled, body beginning to shake on the adrenaline high rushing through him, tears pricking at his eyes.

Jack sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh and a growl. “I'm not going to hurt her, Rhys.” 

He had to remind himself that he was Handsome Jack, absolute top of the food chain, rich as fuck with all the resources in the galaxy. Whatever his instincts were telling him to do, he had to tell them to piss right off. Rhys could have a hundred ragtag bandit children if he wanted and it would never make a dent in Jack's infinite resources where his omega was concerned. He shouldn't be letting himself get this worked up.

“Rhysie--”

“ _No_.”

“I won't do anything. I swear,” Jack told him as he watched the omega’s wild, distrustful eyes.

“Sit on the other side of the room,” Rhys growled out, and it hurt Jack maybe a bit, but he didn't blame the omega in the least. 

Jack got up and sat at the table in the room, putting it between himself and the younger man as he sat at the chair with his hands clasped. “Rhysie…”

Rhys’ nostrils were flaring but he slowly turned back to Jack, growling at him again as he watched the alpha’s nostrils flare in interest as his eyes wandered over the whining child in his arms.

“I swear on our bond I won't do anything,” Jack spoke again, and Rhys gingerly took a seat on the bed, resituating the child in his arms but poised for flight should he need to. It didn't escape Jack's notice, and he tried to calm himself. “Where did she come from, Rhys?”

There was still a defiant growl in the omega's voice as he pet and soothed the child, eyes trained on Jack. “I found her with her dead parents. Pandoran chickenpox, just like Mr. Jacobs.” He paused a moment to cuddle the child close, shushing her and kissing her head. “You shouldn't be here, Jack.”

“I got the injection,” the older man said, watching his omega cuddle the bandit spawn making his skin itch. “She doesn't smell right.”

“She's sick, Jack. She was with their bodies for days by herself,” he choked out as he pet her. “She can't even stand up yet on her own.”

Well. That sucked. But still. “...She's bandit spawn.”

“She's a _baby_ , Jack.”

The alpha sighed. “You can't keep her, Rhys.”

“Yes I can. I found her. She's mine,” he growled, holding the child tighter.

“She's Pandoran.”

“She's helpless and alone and _she's a baby_ ,” he repeated. “Don't you growl at me,” Rhys snarled, angling her away from the older man.

“Rhysie… Sugarpie…I get it, your omega hormones are doing their thing but push ‘em back, princess...”

“You gonna pull this shit when our own kid comes along?” Rhys growled. Jack frowned. “I don't want an unloving man around my babies.”

“Sweetheart…” Jack tried to think of something to say to that, but found he had nothing. Rhys just continued to pet and stroke at the poor child’s skin while his eyes kept darting distrustfully to Jack. The alpha huffed. “You really want to take her back?”

“I won't go without her.”

“...we can dump her at the orphanage on Helios.” Rhys growled. “Take. Take her there.”

“No. She's mine.”

Jack huffed with annoyance. “This is just your hormones talking--”

“Says the knothead who thinks a tiny baby is a threat. Growl at me again and I'm putting a bullet in you.”

“Fuck. Fine then,” Jack said with agitation as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You can practice shit on this thing so _my_ kid has only refined techniques from its mom.”

Rhys growled at the alpha again but had nothing left to say as it was clear she'd be coming back with them. He demanded Jack remain on the other side of the room though, and Rhys would only leave the room if Wilhelm was with them as he very clearly didn't trust Jack regardless of what the alpha said. It put the CEO in an incredibly sour mood.

Jack stayed for the remainder of the time Rhys needed to do his thing to the delicate machines communicating with Helios, and it was not fun. Aside from a proxy doing the go-between like Jack should have, he had to watch his back to make sure the alpha didn't suddenly cave to instinctual impulse. Rhys had him stay in a different room and didn't visit him once during their stay. Jack was rather bitter about the situation.

It took some time before Rhys let Jack near the tiny girl while he worked. Not only because he was scared of what the alpha might do but also because he didn't want the moron of a man he loved to get sick. Antibodies or not, Jack hadn't had chickenpox before and it had _killed_ this tiny child’s parents. Rhys didn't want to risk Jack getting sick.

Jack found himself mostly unimpressed with the tiny thing that had taken his omega's keen interest. _Weak_ , he said. Rhys countered that she was strong, just exhausted and getting over sickness, and that _Jack_ was probably an ugly child to boot so he shouldn't talk.

The man huffed at that and they didn't speak the entire ride back to Helios.

\--

Rhys had immediately taken the child to a pediatrician once back on board. The doctor said she was probably approaching two years, developmentally where she should be for that age, and tired, but after she got over the remaining pox, she would be completely healthy with a fortified diet. Just keep doing what he'd been doing and she’d make a full recovery, the doctor promised. It was a huge relief to the pregnant omega.

That was one worry off his plate, but another loomed as he brought her home with him.

He still didn't trust Jack, which really rankled the alpha. He slept with the child in one of the other rooms, keeping her close and never unprotected. Once she'd gotten stronger and started toddling around as if she'd never been sick, he'd usurped the crib they'd bought and put her in it. The omega didn't want her getting hurt at night, so he set her up real nice in the crib, and she babbled at him and acted like any other normal child considering what she'd been through. Rhys started calling her his little angel, and the name stuck.

He'd woken once to Jack in the same room looming over the crib, and fear had gripped his chest, but the alpha was just looking at her sleep, studious. He'd turned to acknowledge the omega and then went back to eyeing the sleeping child as if he could somehow see what it was Rhys found so alluring about someone else's offspring. Rhys watched him the entire time until he'd dozed back asleep, and when he'd woke later, Jack was gone doing whatever he did.

Angel’s continued closeness to Rhys only helped things, the younger man realized. His scent rubbing off on her as he continually cuddled her was making her smell more tolerable to the alpha. Jack didn't seem to take as quick of notice when Rhys entered a room with her, instead looking a bit surprised that it wasn't just his omega.

Rhys was tending to her rather exclusively the first month back, and he was exhausted. Especially as he continued to get bigger and didn't share the bed of his alpha, and Angel continued to get stronger and active and was running him ragged. He'd woken again to Jack over the crib, this time watching as the toddler sucked down a bottle with the alpha's assistance. He wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not, shocked Jack would have taken the initiative. The omega's sleep-filled voice softly calling the older man made the CEO turn around.

“You were dead asleep and she wouldn't stop crying…”

\--

Rhys started feeling a bit more comfortable with the idea of the alpha around the vulnerable little creature he'd grown attached to. Jack was slowly earning Rhys’ trust with her, and he didn't bristle so much when the alpha approached the tiny toddler. Maybe she was beginning to grow on him.

The omega got clever. He started dressing her in Jack's old clothes, altering them to fit a two-year old. He noticed the rolled eyes Jack gave him at his repurposed shirts as she tottered about the penthouse, but also the way the man's nostrils flared as she smelt like _him_. _That_ was a friendly scent. A familiar scent. One that didn't offend the older man. It said she belonged to him; not some other alpha's progeny.

He still wasn't happy about things, but maybe he got a bit more tolerant and _maybe_ a bit more helpful. Rhys started allowing Jack to sleep next to him at night again, and Angel, for some reason, started grabbing towards the alpha while sucking on a pacifier, little baby fingers curious and tugging at his rings. 

The man wasn't too pleased though Rhys was ecstatic. She didn't see the alpha as a threat anymore, which meant Jack _wasn't._ Rhys blew him for the first time in two months since the whole incident had began. And their relationship improved, getting back on track. He could trust Jack to feed her or dress her, or hold her if she was fussing while Rhys was in the shower. He didn't fear for her survival from the alpha as he initially did. Jack rather begrudgingly accepted things.

\--

It was perfectly safe for Rhys to be out in public with his quickly-growing toddler-- he was a bonded omega, and her presence didn't incite other alphas the way it did Jack. It was fine. Still though, the older man insisted on accompanying Rhys out. The omega was getting bigger, and Jack was inclined to stay closer to his side.

Angel was bouncing with annoyance and making noise as she sucked on a pacifier in Rhys’ arms and wanted down, so he put her there where her little zebra-patterned shoes could see some use. Her little hand clasped one of Rhys’ fingers as he looked over the shopping list.

“We still need the cereal and biscuits for her teeth.”

“I can get it.”

“You know the kind she likes?” Jack was silent and Rhys passed his finger over to the alpha's massive hands, transferring the fidgeting child. “I'll be right back. Let her walk around and maybe she'll wear herself out. We can watch a movie tonight,” Rhys told him with a smile.

Jack huffed but diligently took up the task as Rhys trusted him with her. It hadn't been easy to earn that trust, especially with how threatened he'd first felt. Jack still had something to prove, he knew. Even if it had to be with bandit spawn. He could do it though. For Rhys, he could do anything.

“Take a walk, kiddo,” Jack told her as she tugged at his finger, looking at things on shelves and knocking down boxes. He let her release his finger as she started towards the colorful packages with all a child's curiosity, picking things up and generally tossing them aside. Jack just smirked at the destruction, but realized Rhys would probably give him shit for it if he left it the scattered boxes. _‘I get looks because of you, you know_ ,’ Rhys had mentioned with exasperation.

Jack squatted down while Angel continued to make a mess of things about the aisle. He haphazardly stacked shit so it at least wasn't on the floor. Rhys couldn't blame him for _that._ Even if he just quickly shoved things to the side in a manner obviously not condoned by the store.

A hitched cry and ensuing wails immediately caught his attention as an unfamiliar alpha stood in front of the toddler who’d been knocking stuff down without supervision.

“ _What're you doing to my kid_?!” Jack snarled, and the man immediately backed off as he realized just who was coming down the aisle with murder in his eyes.

Jack scooped up the fearful child and held the back of her head, kissing her forehead and shooting death glares at any other store employees who wanted to judge his parenting skills. Rhys appeared at the other end of the aisle, soft biscuits and baby cereal in his hands as he gave the alpha a raised brow. Jack walked back over to him with a scowl, angrily huffing, but the hold he had was firm; kind.

“What happened?” Rhys asked as he took in the look of his sniffling toddler and the scowling alpha who was holding her with no reservations to the matter.

“Nothing. Baby shit. She just wanted to knock more shit over and I wouldn't let her,” Jack replied as Rhys looked to the mess in the aisle.

“This is why we can't have nice things,” Rhys told him with a smirk as he pressed a kiss to the alpha's cheek, a hand on the back of Angel’s back. “You're turning into a great father, Jack.”

“Does this mean you'll call me daddy?” The alpha quickly posed with a quirk of his lip.

“Jack come on!”

“Oh she doesn't know what that means,” Jack said with a grin as he kissed the child's head again. “You get everything? I'm bored as hell.”

“You didn't have to come.”

“I was bored alone, too.”

Rhys snorted. “Yeah, I've got everything. And whipped cream for dessert.”

“What's it going on?”

“I thought I'd let you choose that,” the omega told him with a grin. Jack smirked at that and captured the omega's lips again as Angel stirred in his arms. “If we can get the munchkin asleep early tonight.”

Jack eyed the child in his arms and then his swollen mate, realizing that once the baby came, there'd be no more whipped cream Rhys buffets in his immediate future. Not with two kids. He had to use his time wisely.

If Rhys wondered why Jack so adamantly played hide and seek with Angel when he previously hadn't been what the omega would call ‘playful’, he didn't question it. And if Jack put her to bed when she started rubbing at her eyes crankily, and then went straight for the fridge with a smug, pointed look at the omega, then Rhys pretended he didn't know what the alpha was up to. 

He let the older man sweep him away to their bedroom with dirty whispers and ideas and a lot more things than either of them had time or energy for. Rhys had arms around the older man as the alpha pressed kisses all over his throat and collar. All in all, they didn't do too much, and Rhys ended up way more sticky than he would have liked, but laying there with his alpha listening to his heart beat, stroking his skin and kissing his hand, well that was what he really lived for.

He smacked Jack when the older man blew a raspberry on his swollen belly though, and the alpha laughed the whole way to the bathroom where he got a cloth to wipe his sticky mate down. At least Jack knew how to keep it interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ending could've been stronger but meh, I had fun exploring this type of omegaverse yay :) 19 more fics to go til 100 published borderlands nonsense woo! (on my tumblr that is haha....I'm choosy about what I put on my ao3 haha) Review if you enjoyed :D It was fun playing with something new :)
> 
> Come say hey :3 <http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com>


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